PROTECTION ACTS. The object of these statutes is to enable a debtor in insolvent circumstances to avert or forestall the impending danger of imprisonment; for any person not a trader within the Bankrupt Acts, or who, being a trader, owes less than 300/., whether in prison or not, may apply in London to the Insolvent Court, in the country to the County Courts, for protection from process. A schedule of debts, and of the names of his creditors, must accompany the petition ; which must set forth an account of his whole estate and liabilities, and be verified by affidavit.
On the petition being filed, the court makes an interim order, which protects the petitioner from all civil process until his examination, but he may still be arrested under a judge's order, to hold him to baiL If in prison, the order effects the petitioner's discharge. The presenta tion of the petition vests all the petitioner's effects in the registrar, who, as official assignee, proceeds to possess himself of all that can be obtained without suit. Notice of the petition is given to the creditors, and inserted in the' Gazette' and local newspapers, a public sitting of the court being at the same time appointed for the first examination of the petitioner. If it appear that the allegations in the petition and the matters in the schedule am true, and that the debts have not been contracted fraudulently or improperly, and do not arise from any of the acts of misconduct enumerated in the statutes, a day is fixed on which a final order shall be made, unless cause be shown to the contrary.
If made, its effect is to permanently protect the petitioner from all process, In respect of the dehta due, at the time of filing the petition, to the creditors named in the schedule. On the other hand, if cause is shown, the court may adjourn the consideration of the final order sine die, or dismiss the petition.
At any time after the final order, the assignees of the estate may claim property since acquired by the insolvent, which claim may be summarily enforced by the order of the court. So that under the Protection Acts, as in the case of an insolvency, the future as well as present property of the debtor may be applied in payment of his debts. In this consists the great distinction between the relief afforded by the bankrupt laws to a trader, and that obtainable by an insolrent debtor, or a petitioner under the Protection Acts.
(Blackstone's ' Commentaries,' Mr. Kerr's edition, vol. ii. p. 616.) PROTECTOR. [SErrhaatrasar.]